I think I have stated clearly that I personally do not take credit for these ideas. I believe that Doug McIlroy expressed everything important related to pipes, hubs, and everything else. I believe that IBM's patent in this case is indefensible completely regardless of any work that I have personally done - but that my personal interests in this area called my attention to this patent.

As I hope I made clear, I think the idea of "we can mux the readers and the writers" is not anything that should be patented, and neither is the details of implementing this idea.